Source code generated by developers during the course of a software project can often be quite lengthy and complex. For instance, source code pertaining to an operating system can include hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code. During the software development process, developers will generate source code, test the source code for bugs, fix such bugs with the use of a debugger, etc. It is well known that oftentimes complex software will include many different branches, such that depending upon values of variables in the source code different branches may be taken during execution of the software.
Accordingly, software developers frequently have questions about software projects upon which they are working. Among some of the most difficult and time consuming of these questions are related to actual execution behavior of the software. For instance, a developer may wonder if a particular line of code is ever executed and, if it is executed, what branches were taken to reach such line of code. Oftentimes, during execution of a particular piece of software values are assigned to variables that were unintended or unexpected by the developer.
Conventionally, to monitor software execution behavior, developers typically have conversations with their colleagues or co-developers, manually inspect log data pertaining to software execution, or attempt to use a break point debugger to drive the execution of the software to a particular line of code. As mentioned above, however, many current software projects include a significant number of lines of code, and thus answering any of the questions described above can be an error prone, time consuming, and frustrating process for the developer.